Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Felix Fibich [sound recording]

Author

Fibich, Felix.

Publication

1997.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Ingber, Judith Brin.

Description

5 sound cassettes (6.5 hr.) +

Summary

• Cassette 1. Recorded February 4, 1997. Mr. Fibich discusses his childhood in Warsaw, Poland; growing up in a Hasidic household; dances linked to religious ceremonies and holidays; the cultural life of 1920s Warsaw; anti-Semitism in Poland; teaching himself about music, theater dance and art; joining the Jung Theatre; his parents' restaurant; studying dance with Judith Berg; escaping Nazi-occupied Poland; performing with Judith Berg's company; Berg's choreography; developing movement from shapes in the Hebrew alphabet; the use of oppositional movement in Hasidic dance; the influence of Doris Humphrey on his development as a choreographer; his choreography for vaudeville; dance collaborations with Berg based on Jewish poems and songs.
• Cassette 2. February 5, 1997. [A persistent jackhammer noise occurs 20 minutes into side A.] Mr. Fibich describes his escape from Nazi-occupied Poland; being arrested when he tried to return to Warsaw; dances by Judith Berg, including Cry of Israel and Mahatenes Tanz; the stage acts of the Bialystok Theater of Miniature; touring Russia; the German attack on opening night in Odessa; escaping from Odessa to Ashkhabad (Turkmenian Republic); delivering provisions from the Polish government to refugees in Siberia; his second theatrical tour to Siberia; being hired by the Turkmenian Opera in Ashkhaban; leaving the opera; performing with Tashkent Theatre troupe after liberation.
• Cassette 3. February 5-6, 1997. Mr. Fibich describes his return to Warsaw after the war; teaching dance in a Warsaw orphanage; opening a Jewish dance school for children; struggling to leave Poland for Israel; meeting and being funded by Bethsabee de Rothschild; receiving a contract from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture to tour the U.S.; his financial and professional struggles in the U.S.; auditioning repertory for the National Foundation for Jewish Culture; his first concert in New York City; performing for Workmen's Circle events; his friendships with Nina Caiserman and Gurit Kadman; performing in Israel; being stigmatized as an "ethnic" dancer; developing choreography from Jewish ritual gestures; and criticizes Jerome Robbins' choreography for Fiddler on the roof.
• Cassette 4, side A only. February 6, 1997. [Feedback at beginning of cassette.] Mr. Fibich discusses choreographing and performing vaudeville shows in the 1960s; choreographing shows for Broadway; teaching and choreographing for the Jewish Community Center in Chicago; being fired by the Jewish Community Center; returning to New York City; touring his one-man lecture demonstration on the history of Jewish dance; acting in Cafe crown and other English-language plays; performing and teaching in the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland; acting in a French movie about Holocaust survivors; and his health.
• Cassette 5. February 7, 1997. [Most of this cassette records Fibich and Ingber as they look at and comment on old performance photos and programs. Other topics of discussion are as follows.] Mr. Fibich discusses his tour to South America in 1970; reuniting with his brother-in-law in Israel; performing for Holocaust survivors in Poland after the war; Madeleine Albright's Jewish ancestry; and his "adopted" daughter, Robyn.

Donor/Sponsor

Gift of Gertrude Lippincott Trust.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project.
• Dance Audio Archive.

Subjects

• Rothschild, Bethsabée de, Baroness
• Berg, Judith
• Jewish dance, Hasidic
• Musical comedies > Fiddler on the roof
• Caiserman, Nina
• Jewish dance > United States
• Jews, Polish
• Audiotapes > Fibich, F
• Kadman, Gurit

Note

• For transcript, see: *MGZMT 3-2042.
• Interviewed by Judith Brin Ingber, February 4-7, 1997, at Mr. Fibich's New York City apartment.

Access (note)

• Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Call Number

*MGZMT 3-2042 (transcript)

OCLC

NYPY98-R4

Author

Fibich, Felix. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Felix Fibich [sound recording]

Imprint

1997.

Local Note

Preservation master cassette: *MGZTCO 3-2042.

Archival transcript: *MGZMTO 3-2042.

Restricted Access

Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Local Subject

Musical comedies. Fiddler on the roof.

Jewish dance, Hasidic.

Audiotapes -- Fibich, F.

Added Author

Ingber, Judith Brin. Interviewer

Research Call Number

*MGZMT 3-2042 (transcript)

*MGZTC 3-2042 (sound cassette)